In one form of service as provided by a service provider, a user selects a service package from among a plurality of service packages, where the service package implements a service and defines a number of service units that may be employed in connection with the service. Typically, the service package is provided for a pre-defined period of time, such as for example monthly or quarterly, where the period of time may be characterized as a billing cycle. As is to be appreciated, the service provider bills the user for the service package on a periodic basis that may correspond to the billing cycle, such as for example at the end thereof, ten days after the end thereof, etc.
Also typically, unused service units that remain at the end of a billing cycle expire. That is, even though the user has at least indirectly paid for such unused service units, the units cease to exist.
In one particular example of the above scenario, and as should be appreciated, in cellular telephone service and the like as provided by a cellular telephone service provider, a user typically selects a cellular telephone service package from among a plurality of such service packages. The package may for example provide local service, regional service, national service, international service, or the like, and more importantly may include a pre-determined number of minutes that the user has available for use in connection with such service. Thus, one package may provide 150 minutes of local service for 25 dollars, while another may provide 100 minutes of regional service for 25 dollars, while yet another package may provide 60 minutes of national service for 25 dollars, all on a monthly basis.
Typically, the user initially agrees to obtain and pay for the cellular telephone service and the service package over several billing cycles, i.e., for a year or two, after which the user may continue with the service and service package indefinitely. Importantly, in the prior art, over the many billing cycles that the user has agreed to, unused minutes that remain at the end of each billing cycle expire. That is, even though the user has at least indirectly paid for such minutes, the units cease to exist.
Based on the expiration of minutes at the end of each billing cycle, at least two items of interest occur. One is that the user becomes annoyed with the cellular telephone service provider for the perceived loss of the minutes. Two is that the user is provided with no incentive to continue the service and service package after the initial agreement has been satisfied, and because of item one and perhaps other reasons may be in a frame of mind to shop for service and a service package from another cellular telephone service provider.
More particularly, and with regard to item one, a user over a period of time may grow to regard the provided package minutes as his/her property, and thus becomes agitated when the unused portion of his/her perceived property is unceremoniously deemed non-existent at the end of a billing cycle. While good arguments can be made that such provided package minutes both are or are not in fact the property of the user, the point that is to be appreciated is that the user is dissatisfied.
With regard to item two, once the initial agreement has been satisfied and the user is no longer obligated by such agreement to continue the service and service package, the user by nature may explore options for alternative services and service packages, especially those from other cellular telephone service providers, and especially if the user feels dissatisfied with the current service and/or service package. Of course, it would be better for the current provider to keep the user as a customer, since such user as a customer provides a continued revenue stream, and at any rate it is axiomatic that it is less expensive to keep a current customer than to find a new customer.
Incentives can be and are currently provided to a user to continue as a customer, especially once such user has satisfied his/her initial agreement. For example, the user may be given a customer loyalty credit for purchasing service-related equipment such as a cellular telephone. However, and importantly, the incentive may not always be automatically offered, and therefore the user may not be aware of the incentive. Even if automatically offered, the incentive may be offered too late, i.e., after the user has already decided to switch to an alternative service and service package. At any rate, the user is not ‘conditioned’ to automatically consider the incentive when deciding whether to switch.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system wherein unused minutes or the like left over at the end of a billing cycle are carried forward to the next billing cycle. As such, the user keeps his/her perceived property, and does not become dissatisfied based on expired minutes. Moreover, at the end of an initial service agreement, the user is automatically conditioned to consider that he/she has un-expired minutes that still exist and that might be lost if the user switches to an alternative service and service package from another cellular telephone service provider or the like. Since such unused minutes do not expire at the end of a billing cycle, the minutes can be treated as a commodity that may be bought, sold, and/or traded for services and/or goods.